Just to through a monkey wrench into the Inline legality question-ID is about to make them illegal for muzzleloader hunts-"Short range season" here. Siting that they give an unfair advantage over true "Muzzleloader" in power and range-they could not be scoped while using them in the short range season anyway.

Congradulations to Jim Shockey, Some people just have to whine about something, so go ahead tell us your sad story so that we can understand why you hate Jim Shochey or is it inlines.

I'm of mixed feelings:

Hats off to a guy who take a great elk legally. There is nothing to critisize there. Good job!

But, I'm sorry, a modern, scoped inline (probably) shooting pellets w/ a sabot & HV sub-caliber jacketed bullet is anything BUT a "Primitive weapon."

I'm not saying people shouldn't be alound to hunt w/ them, but they are far more deadly than many of the repeating rifles (even smokeless ones) that were used in the 1st half of the 20th century. I'd easily choose one of them over a 30-30, .303 Sav., 32 winchester or even over a 30-40 Krag, if the these had to be used w/ open sights. THEY are more "primitive" than the rifle that Shockey uses.

I'm sorry it isn't right to put an animal taken w/ that kind of non-primitive muzzleloader, w/ guys that are taking animals w/ a flint or cap gun, open sights, ball & patch, or even cast lead maxi/minnie.

My 2 cents.

As the guy who started this thread, I suppose I should add a few comments after-the-fact.

First of all, Mr. Shockey is probably a great guy (based on what folks say) and I'd probably have fun hanging around the campfire with him. Part of me is jealous that he gets to do all this hunting. I guess you could call him a professional, but these guys definately whore/pimp themselves to the manufacturers of hunting gear and I doubt he's an exception.

If it's not fair chase, then I'm not for it. I don't doubt this was a fair-chase hunt. I have a buddy who held the P&Y Sitka Blactail W.R. get stripped by a trophy buyer. He was reinstated as the record holder when P&Y found out this guy was buying up horns and claiming he had got them himself.

My apologies for taking a cheap shot at Mr. Shockey. I should have had a better reason than just envy or jealously. I musta got him confused with that guy (Jackie Bushman?) who does the BuckMasters thing.